Never Coming Back
by xXxJaceInWonderlandxXx
Summary: "So Thalia hid. Like the coward she always knew she was. She watched as her best friend in the entire universe- and possibly more- was dragged, utterly defeated, into the car. " One-shot, written for PJO Ship Week #1.


** This is my first time ever writing Thaluke, and personally, I think it turned out pretty well. Enjoy!**

**Written for PJO Ship Week #1 (Thaluke)**

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

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**Never Coming Back**

"Unbelievable," Thalia moans softly, burying her face in her hands. "Completely unbelievable."

In the distance, she can hear the last of the sirens fading, but still she doesn't move from her squatting position behind the hedge. Annabeth's pressed up to her side, her body shaking with tiny, silent sobs. Thalia can't blame her- she feels like curling up into a ball and crying herself, but she wills herself to be strong. She has to be strong for Annabeth. For herself. For Luke.

Luke… the urge to cry gets stronger every time she thinks of him. The image of the last time she's seen him flashes into her mind suddenly- head down, hands cuffed, being led to the cop car. The way he'd glanced up at her, blue eyes meeting her own, and mouthed that one word that carried so much meaning in their crazy lives.

_Careful._

Annabeth's sobs are now turning into hiccupping gasps, so, in an a half-hearted attempt to not get caught, Thalia gently picks up the seven year old and carries her into the brush behind the house. There's no sense in all three of them winding up in jail.

Granted, it was Thalia's fault Luke ended up in prison anyways. She had been exhausted and her shoulder was throbbing after a particularly bad run-in with a hellhound. Luke, as usual, couldn't refuse her when she asked him to break into one of the small cottages that dotted the town, just so that they could grab some supplies and possibly get a little bit of shut-eye. However, despite Luke's skill of breaking and entering, there was an unaccounted security system that had the police showing up within minutes. Thalia had just enough time to drag Annabeth over to a row of bushes, and was about to go back for Luke when the first cops pulled up.

So Thalia hid. Like the coward she always knew she was. She watched as her best friend in the entire universe- and possibly more- was dragged, utterly defeated, into the car. She knows any second now the police will try and contact Luke's parents, only to find out his mother is a thousand miles away. Then would come the horrible child services people, and finally Luke would be sent back to his mother or to a foster home. Either way, she was never going to see him again.

Thalia's throat constricts at the thought of that. After all they'd been through, battling dragons and killing hellhounds and raising Annabeth, Luke had been defeated by something as mundane as police officers.

"Thalia?" Annabeth tugs on her sleeve. "Luke's not coming back, is he?"

If possible, Thalia gets even more upset over the prospect that the seven year old knew exactly what was going on. But she wasn't going to make it even worse. Shoving her inner turmoil down, she pulls a battered copy of Cinderella- Annabeth's favourite book- out of her knapsack.

"I don't know. But hey, why don't we read this story and then try and sleep for a bit?" Thalia suggests, praying that Annabeth would accept her offer. She really doesn't have the energy to try and entertain her right now.

Annabeth, thankfully, is completely on board with this. She settles down on Thalia's lap and, for a second, everything seems all right with the world.

Then Thalia thinks of Luke, and suddenly every ounce of happiness inside of her vanishes.

o-o-tg&lc-o-o

The next morning, Thalia wakes up cold.

You would think that being on the run and sleeping outside would probably mean that this is a regular occurrence, but she's usually huddled up with Luke and Annabeth. They always sleep the same way- both girls curled inward with Luke in the middle, like some kind of bizarre family. If Luke's in a particularly good mood, he'll mumble "my girls" as they're all drifting off, making Thalia's heart flip-flop, even though she knows he means it in a completely platonic way. This morning, however, the only person snuggled up to her is Annabeth, her tiny body providing nowhere near the same amount of body heat as Luke's.

She sits up suddenly, yesterday's events rushing back to her all at once. Thalia knows she should keep moving before a monster attacks them, but a small part of her insists that she stays put, just in case Luke returns. She sighs almost inaudibly. Why was she so hung up on this boy?

_Because you love him…_The little, girly voice in Thalia's head that she tried oh-so-hard to squash pipes up.

_I do not like him! I just have a little… crush, that's all. _She feels like an idiot for arguing with a voice in her head, but still, Thalia has to defend herself, even if what she said wasn't totally true.

_And now I'm never going so see him again. _This time both Thalia and the voice spoke in unison.

Tears prick the corners of her eyelids, and she rubs them away furiously. She wasn't going to cry over something as stupid as a boy. She was Thalia Grace. She was strong. She would not shed a single tear over any guy, regardless if he was her best friend she'd been pining over for ages or not.

"Thalia?" Annabeth sits up, looking groggy. "What's that sound?"

Thalia pulls herself out of her thoughts, suddenly hearing a loud thump coming from the forest. She curses underneath her breath. Monsters.

"Annabeth, get up that tree," She orders, pulling her Mace canister from her pocket.

"But-" Annabeth protests, pulling her dagger from her belt. Thalia groans. Why had Luke even given her a weapon in the first place?

"Fine," Thalia rolls her eyes. "But stick to the edges of the clearing, and _follow my lead_."

The thumping gets louder, and Thalia begins to pray to the Gods- something she doesn't do very often- that it'll be a small monster, an Empousai maybe. As much as she hates to admit it, she's not sure if she could handle anything bigger without Luke by her side.

Clearly, the Gods are busy, because the bushes part to reveal a Laistrygonian giant. It's smaller than other monsters she's faced, but still wicked strong. Behind her, Annabeth lets out a faint whimper just as the Laistrygonian charges.

Thalia slashes at it with her sword, but it darts out of the way and heads towards Annabeth. The little girl stumbles backwards, fumbling clumsily with her dagger as the monster looms closer. Thalia comes up behind the giant and stabs it, but it whirls at the last minute, making what was supposed to be a deadly blow barely a scratch. She goes flying through the air, landing with a thud beside Annabeth, who had wisely taken refuge behind a tree. The Laistrygonian stumbles towards them, his ugly face looming above her. Thalia tries to pull her sword out again, but it's wedged in some roots and isn't budging. With one final tug, she finally wriggles it free and plunges it into the monster's chest, hearing it clang against metal.

Wait… metal?

The monster vaporizes, leaving nothing but dust behind. And, standing right behind the spot where it had been about to kill her stands Luke, his sword still outstretched in front of him.

"Luke!" Annabeth calls happily, racing forward into his arms. Thalia stands up shakily, unable to believe her eyes.

"How?" She breathes, staring at him.

Luke shrugs, shifting Annabeth onto his hip. "This guy came in and bailed me out. Don't ask me how he did it- he snapped his fingers in front of the guards or something and they let me go. I think he may have been crazy though, cause he had this cellphone that he kept on calling George and Martha. It was kind of freaky, but hey, at least I got out of there."

Thalia can only stare as he sets Annabeth down, telling her to go and see if she can find anything for them to eat. It's a diversion, she knows, but for what?

"Thals-" Luke begins, but she cuts him off.

"You complete asshole!" Thalia shouts, grabbing his arm and judo-flipping him over her shoulder. She really hopes Annabeth isn't peeking from the bushes- imagine what an example she's setting right now. Gods forbid she should ever do this to a boy. "I was so worried… I thought I was never going to see you again, and now you…" She sighs, trailing off. "I missed you."

Luke pulls himself to his feet, a smile dancing across his face. "Are you kidding? You missed me? Every single moment I was in there, I thought of you. I missed you so much Thalia, it isn't even funny."

She's not quite sure how it happens, but all of the sudden his lips were on hers, and she was kissing him back, winding her arms around his neck. She breaks away from the kiss long enough to give him a hug, and then they're kissing again, releasing all of the pent-up emotion shut away inside of them for who knows how long…

Gods forbid Annabeth ever did anything even remotely close to this with a boy.

"Um, I found the berries!" A small, high pitched voice pipes up from behind them. Thalia groans inwardly and breaks apart from Luke, plastering a smile on her face. Speak of the devil.

Luke swears underneath his breath and turns towards Annabeth. "You did, kiddo? Why don't you come over here and tell Thals and I where you found them?"

His cheeks are bright red, matching the colour of Thalia's perfectly. Annabeth grins a smile far too malicious for such a little girl, skipping back to the edge of the clearing. "It's alright. I'll go alone so you and Thalia can get back to playing tonsil hockey."

Thalia's eyes widen to the size of saucers. How did she even know what that is?

"Alright, you're gonna get it!" She dashes towards the little girl, her arms outstretched. Luke joins her within seconds, both of them grabbing Annabeth and picking her up, tickling her all over.

As the three of them laugh together, racing around the clearing, Thalia can't help but grin. Luke's arm swings around her shoulders, and Annabeth grabs her hand, pulling her towards the patch of berries. Once again, she feels like they're some bizarre family, but this time she actually likes the feeling.

This time, she actually feels like she's found a home.

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**This is one of the few story endings of mine I actually like... review please?**

**-Jace ;)**

**PS: Here's the full ship week list:**

July 14-20 (Thalia and Luke)

July 21-27 (Beckendorf and Silena)

July 28-August 3 (Grover and Juniper)

August 4-10 (Chris and Clarisse)

August 11-17 (Tyson and Ella)

August 18-24 (Frank and Hazel)

August 25-31 (Leo and Hazel)

September 1-7 (Leo and Reyna)

September 8-14 (Jason and Reyna)

September 15-21 (Jason and Piper)

September 22-28 (Free Ship!)

September 28- October 7 (Percy and Annabeth)


End file.
